Wednesday, February 3, 2010

It occurs to me while on holiday that many people never really get a vacation. They have an ill loved one than needs constant care; they don’t have enough money; they are afraid of leaving home or a hundred other reasons.

In a paradise setting I see extensive and filthy makeshift communities of homeless people. Tents and tarpaulins litter the beachside park. My heart goes out to them in compassion for their choices and willingness to accept such limitation; but I do not see them as victims.

Saying YesOur job as enlightened beings is to say yes to it all. We often feel sorry for homeless people or minimum wage workers. Compassion is one thing. It is lovely, aligning and conscious of our at-one-ment with others. Feeling sorry for others is another thing. When we feel sorry for people we have simply forgotten they are creators, not victims. We have judged their circumstances as awful.

FreedomOftentimes we do not even know the real story behind their situations. For some, such ‘housing’ is a step up from something. It may represent freedom from abuse, bills, burdens, family, debt or even isolation.

Just One ChoiceI’m not being Pollyanna here, but we need to see these makeshift communities as just one choice in our reality. In the midst of such wealth and abundance they have made hundreds of thousands of small decisions that resulted in their reality being what it is. And so have we. We are, for the most part, comfortable in the one we have chosen. Yet we are living in a reality that is would be deemed substandard from a $5,000.00 per night hotel room.

PerspectiveIf a wealthier person felt sorry for you in how you live your everyday life, you’d be insulted, and rightfully so. Such condescending attitudes make many presumptions about what pleases you, your comfort zone and your perceptions. It says everything you think and all you have become are wrong. How pompous and arrogant is such an attitude! The same is true when you feel smug and superior looking down on the tent dwellers.

All is One; All is NowIf we but remember we are all one and all is happening now, we will understand things differently. Everyone else: filthy, wealthy, grieving, mentally ill or deliriously happy is an aspect of you. They are offering you an opportunity to see a facet of yourself in a different mirror, through different eyes. Embrace that awareness of the choices you could have made in this lifetime… that some part of you did make since we are all One; and be grateful. Be grateful that you have decided to emphasize a different facet of your beingness this time around that suits your comfort zone..

ComparisonBecause we live in a world of duality everything is looked at in comparison to something else. We do this to make informed choices. However, if we make comparisons to feed ego, to feel superior to someone else or to create separation, we have failed in our job as enlightened beings. Judgment separates. Acknowledging facets of the crystals we are unites us in a common bond of oneness. Preferences are not steps up a ladder; just choices based on myriad experiences that brought us to the now moment. Live in that now moment, make informed choices and remember the seed of each of us is in each other.